What is the Importance of a Blog or an Email List?

As I pointed out in a post a couple of weeks ago, there are three things I believe are important components to a successful, and affordable, online marketing strategy.

• Social Media
• Blogging
• An email list

Last week I talked about why it was important to build relationships on social media. Today I want to talk about why it’s important to have a blog … AND, an email list.

It’s all about content … not content for the sake of content; but content that provides value and benefit. It’s about content that provides answers that solve the problems of your target market, your ideal client. What do you know or have that they need?  What can you impart to them that will make them want to know more about you and ultimately want to work with you? What can you provide that will keep driving them back to your website (yep, that’s the goal with social media and every other form of marketing!) until they have heard enough they want to work with you?

Both blogging and email marketing have been around for quite a while, and are still two of the most effective, AND cost effective ways to market your business. Why? Because they work. 

Let’s look at blogging …

Blogging is awesome because you can share your expertise (like I’m doing here) in written form on a regular basis. Some people blog every day. Some people blog a couple of times a week. Others … once a week. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re consistent. That doesn’t mean you can’t change the frequency from time to time though. Personally, I’ve done it all. And after blogging twice a week for several years, I’ve changed my schedule to once a week. Find what works for you, and do it.

Now here’s where social media and building relationships come in. Each time you publish a new blog post, share it on your social media channels … with a link back to your post … on your website. You can also share your posts on 3rd party sites like Triberr, Tumbler, LinkedIn, and Medium. Always, always, always, driving people back to your website to find out more about you, your business, how you can help them, and why they would want to work with you. Have a special sign up form on your blog for those who want to receive notifications via email whenever you post something – like you’ll see to the right of this post. Make it easy for your ideal client to consume your content. 

Social Media + Blogging + Email Marketing = a successful and affordable marketing strategyClick to Tweet

Now let’s look at developing an email list …

The value of an email list comes in because not only are you continuing to provide valuable information to those who need what you have, but by providing their email address means those on your list are giving you permission to send them information on a regular basis. That means they actually WANT what you have enough to give you access to their inbox. What an opportunity! This allows you to stay in contact with people who want what you have on a more personal level … and another reason why you want to drive people back to your website.

To put it simply, you create something of value (free) to your target market or ideal client that will entice them to give you their email address. Place opt-in boxes on your website, on your blog, on your social media platforms … wherever appropriate. Once they provide their email address, they are added to a special list in your email marketing platform (I do hope you have one. If not, let me know, we can help.). Since this list is comprised of people who WANT what you have, you can keep in touch on a regular basis by sending them a newsletter, news and information about your business or new services from time to time, special promotions, whatever. The key is to continue to provide content of value and benefit on a regular basis, sprinkled with sales and promotions. This is one of those times when the 80/20 rule comes into play. 80% value and benefit, 20% sales and promotion.

As with your blog posts, you can share a link to your opt-in form with your contacts on social media. Maybe even post snippets of your newsletter on Facebook or Twitter, with a link to your sign up form. 

Can you see how the three components I’ve shared over the last three weeks can work hand in hand with each other?

When you combine building relationships on social media with blogging and email marketing, you can have the effective and affordable marketing strategy we’ve been talking about. 

If all of this is new to you, or you simply need help with what you have, please let us know. As I’ve said time and time again, it’s what we do, and we’re happy to help!